After listening to the podcast, it becomes evident that in order to discover truth and expose the hidden, one must understand the importance of perception. Humans tend to only believe what is visible to them, and what is seen is what they allow to construct their thought process and how they think concepts. Without considering the extremities of the cave people, it seems foolish that they could think shadows to be actual beings but once we understand that this is all they have ever seen, it is understood that their circumstances have constituted their realities and that we are not different in how we think. The tendency to simply adopt concepts as opposed to further exploring what we can not see is a common flaw in human thought as it limits our framework of thinking.
The podcast also offers this idea that if one of the trapped prisoners were to leave and discover a more in depth understanding, it would be extremely difficult, especially if they were to adopt this new ideology in an attempt to try to teach it to their still trapped peers–this idea can also be applied to day to day modern human thinking as well. To create a new way of thinking requires the erasure of prior preconceived notions, which is extremely difficult if every other thought possessed was formulated around this concept. Further, to think the unthought can be intimidating and complex because it suggests that everything ever known was untrue or partially accurate, even further complicating these ideologies. As a result of how uncomfortable re-thinking can be for individuals, it is better understood why many tend to reject any other form of thinking that contradicts or disproves theirs–for fear of it deconstructing their universe or meaning of their existence.
All in all, the podcast provides a strategic and in depth way of thinking about why it is so difficult to form new/advanced theories and ideas. In evaluating these ideas, however, the podcast also subliminally provides the solution to the problem by identifying the obstacles.
I agree that change is difficult. That’s why a lot of the issues that we are trying to change aren’t changing. Racism for example, it is hard for people to understand something that they’ve never known. Change is scary and even if it is for the better, it is very very hard to get people to give up what they once believed, especially if they don’t know they believed it. When I was doing OA trainign we had a woman come and talk to us about racism and she said that everyone is racism because we are raised in a fundamentally racist society. And I agree with what you said about the erasure of preconceived notions and that it is very difficult. It is hard to change something that hasn’t changed in centuries, even, like in the instance of racism, you would be changing society for the better.